Day 50 Post-Impact - Morning
Sana woke to sunlight and embarrassment.
The near-kiss in the garden played on repeat in her mind. The way he'd leaned in. The way she'd leaned in. The warmth of his breath against her lips, the racing of her heart, the absolute certainty that something wonderful was about to happen.
And then Minji.
She buried her face in her pillow, groaning. The partial bond pulsed with her emotions, and she wondered if Sarnav could feel her mortification from wherever he was.
A knock at the door saved her from further spiraling.
"Sana-san?" Nisha's voice. "Breakfast is ready. And Sarnav asked if you'd like to walk the gardens with him later. If you're feeling up to it."
Her heart stuttered. "I'll be right out."
She dressed quickly, choosing from the clothes the other wives had provided. Simple things, practical, but Ishani had somehow found a sundress that actually fit her figure. Soft yellow fabric that fell to her knees, modest but flattering.
She caught her reflection in the small mirror and paused.
For the first time since the rift, she actually looked at herself.
The exhaustion had faded. Nisha's healing and proper rest had restored what sixteen days of depletion had stolen. Her skin had regained its color, warm and healthy. Her dark brown hair, freshly washed, fell past her shoulders in soft waves. Her brown eyes, which had been hollow and haunted, now held something like hope.
She was pretty. She'd known that, once, back when she was training to be an idol. Back when her appearance was measured and critiqued daily. But somewhere in the nightmare of the rift, she'd forgotten.
Now she remembered.
And she wondered if Sarnav had noticed.
Breakfast was a chaotic affair.
The common area buzzed with activity, awakened and civilians alike sharing the morning meal. Through the windows, Sana could see the western expansion in progress, construction crews already at work raising new housing blocks. A board near the entrance showed the daily status: Population 565, Western Expansion 47%.
Mythili moved through the crowd efficiently, datapad in hand, coordinating work assignments for the civilian crews. She paused when she noticed Sana at the wives' table, something unreadable crossing her expression. Her gaze flickered toward the medical wing visible through the windows, where healers were still overworked treating the rescued survivors. Then she continued on, making a note on her datapad.
The five wives had claimed a table near the windows, and Sana found herself pulled into their orbit like a planet finding its sun.
"You're glowing," Minji observed, entirely too cheerfully. "Good dreams?"
"I don't remember my dreams."
"Uh-huh. Sure." Minji's grin was insufferable. "Nothing to do with what I interrupted yesterday?"
"Minji." Nisha's tone carried warning. "Let her eat."
"I'm just saying, there was definitely a vibe. A very specific vibe. A vibe that I may have accidentally destroyed with my terrible timing."
"Your timing is always terrible," Jade said without looking up from her tablet. "It's statistically improbable how consistently you interrupt things."
"It's a gift."
Ishani leaned over, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "For what it's worth, he's been distracted all morning. Asked Chen Wei the same question three times. Kept looking toward your room."
Sana felt heat rise to her cheeks. "He did?"
"Men are simple creatures," Ishani continued. "Especially that one. He's probably been replaying yesterday in his head just like you have."
"I haven't been..."
Five knowing looks silenced her protest.
"Okay," she admitted. "Maybe a little."
The wives laughed, and somehow the embarrassment transformed into belonging. These women understood. They'd all been where she was, navigating the strange waters of falling for a man who belonged to others.
Sarnav appeared at the edge of the common area. His eyes found hers immediately, and the partial bond hummed with mutual awareness.
"Ready for that walk?" he asked.
She was.
The gardens were quieter in the morning.
They walked side by side along paths that Nisha's magic had coaxed into bloom, surrounded by flowers that had no business surviving in the post-apocalypse. The silence between them was comfortable but charged, filled with unspoken things.
"About yesterday," Sarnav started.
"Minji has terrible timing."
"The worst." He smiled, and something in her chest tightened. "But I wanted to talk. Really talk. If you're willing."
"About what?"
"About you. About me. About whatever this is becoming."
Sana stopped walking. They stood in a small clearing, a bench nearby, morning light filtering through the branches above.
"You want to know my story," she said.
"I want to know you. The story is part of that."
She sat on the bench. He sat beside her, close but not touching.
"I was seventeen when I started training," she began. "My agency, Sakura Entertainment, recruited me from a singing competition in Osaka. They said I had potential. The right look, the right voice, the right..." She gestured vaguely at herself. "Package."
"Idol training."
"Three years of it. Voice lessons six hours a day. Dance practice until my feet bled. Diet control that bordered on starvation. Image coaching that told me exactly how to smile, how to laugh, how to make people believe I was happy even when I was exhausted." She picked at a flower absently. "They weighed us weekly. If you gained half a kilogram, you were punished with extra cardio. If your skin broke out, they'd reduce your food further."
"That's abuse."
"It's the industry." Her smile was rueful. "I wasn't naive. I knew what I was signing up for. And despite everything, I loved it. The performances. The connection with fans who screamed your name. The feeling of being part of something bigger than myself, of bringing joy to thousands of people."
She paused, gathering herself.
"My parents weren't supportive. My father is a salaryman, traditional. He wanted me to go to university, find a stable job, marry well. My mother agreed with him publicly but cried when I told her about the competition. Happy tears. She'd wanted to be a singer once, but her parents had forbidden it."
"So you were living her dream too."
"Maybe. Or maybe just my own. Either way, I was going to debut solo. Finally, after three years. My agency had arranged a showcase tour. Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. A way to build international presence before launching in Japan."
"And then the asteroid."
"Three days before my first performance." Her voice went quiet. "I was at the venue in KL, rehearsing for the showcase. Running through choreography for the twentieth time because my manager said my footwork was sloppy. Then the sky turned red, and the building came down."
"Three days before." Her voice went quiet. "I was at the venue in KL, rehearsing for the showcase. The building collapsed. I woke up in the rubble with power I didn't understand and a world that had ended."
Sarnav was silent, letting her continue at her own pace.
"I found survivors. Other people trapped in nearby buildings. My power... it kept them alive. Healed their wounds. So I kept using it, even when it hurt, even when I felt myself depleting. Because what else could I do? Let them die?"
"You could have saved yourself."
"No." She shook her head firmly. "I couldn't. That's not who I am. Maybe it should be. Maybe I should be more selfish. But when I see someone suffering, someone I can help..." She trailed off.
"You help them. No matter the cost."
"Is that stupid?"
"It's heroic." He took her hand, and the bond pulsed warm between them. "It's exactly what a hero does."
She looked at him then. Really looked, the way she'd been avoiding since she woke up. He was handsome, she realized. Not in the polished, manufactured way of the idol industry. Something rawer. Stronger. A face shaped by hardship and determination.
"Tell me about you," she said. "Fair is fair."
So he did.
He told her about the impact. About working a dead-end IT job he hated, about his father's affairs that everyone knew about but nobody discussed. About Bangsar, where his father had been with his mistress when the asteroid hit, erasing them both along with an entire district.
"I should feel guilty," he admitted. "For not mourning him more. But he wasn't... he wasn't a good man. Not to my mother. Not to me."
"Some people don't deserve our grief."
"Maybe. But he was still my father."
He told her about finding his mother at the courthouse, about the system awakening in his dying moments. About the impossible choice it had presented. Power through intimate bonds. Strength through connection. A path forward that required him to become something he'd never imagined.
"At first, I thought it was a curse," he said. "A harem system? It sounded like something from the manga I used to read. Wish fulfillment fantasy. But the world had ended, and people were dying, and the system was the only way I could protect them."
He told her about Nisha, about falling in love with his childhood friend while the world burned. How she'd struggled with sharing him, how they'd both cried the first time he'd been with someone else.
"We almost didn't survive it," he admitted. "The jealousy. The hurt. But somewhere along the way, it became something else. Not just tolerance. Actual family."
He told her about Ishani and Minji and Jade and Ananya, each relationship different, each one real. About the network that bound them together, letting them feel each other's emotions, share each other's strength.
And he told her about Kane and the Iron Wolves. About the massacre they'd committed, the 289 people who'd died because Sarnav wasn't there to protect them. About the rage that had fueled his breakthrough, the battle that had broken and remade him.
"I killed him," Sarnav said flatly. "Kane. With my bare hands. And I didn't feel anything except satisfaction."
"He deserved it."
"Probably. But that's not who I wanted to be. A killer. A warlord." He shook his head. "I wanted to build something. A place where people could be safe. Where the apocalypse didn't have to mean the end of decency."
He told her about the rift. About seeing her from a distance, a figure of golden light keeping strangers alive. About the desperate race to reach her. About the choice to bond with her unconscious body because the alternative was watching her die.
"I'm sorry," he said when he finished. "For all of it. For bonding without permission. For dragging you into this life you didn't choose."
"I did choose," she said softly. "I chose not to dissolve the bond. I chose to stay. I chose to learn about you and your wives." Her grip on his hand tightened. "I'm choosing now."
"Choosing what?"
She stood, pulling him up with her. They were close now, closer than yesterday, and this time there was no Minji to interrupt.
"I want you to see me," she said. "Really see me. Not the exhausted healer you rescued. Not the grateful survivor. Me."
She reached up and pulled the clip from her hair, letting it fall fully around her shoulders. She straightened her spine, squared her shoulders, and let him look.
[MIURA SANA - COMPREHENSIVE SCAN]
[AGE: 25]
[NATIONALITY: JAPANESE]
[PHYSICAL PROFILE: 5'5" | 34E-24-35]
[FEATURES: SOFT CURVES, DIMPLES, WARM BROWN EYES]
[ABILITY: HOLY LIGHT HEALING (B-RANK, RECOVERING)]
[COMPATIBILITY: 97% (EXCEPTIONAL)]
[BOND STATUS: PARTIAL (CONVERTING)]
[EMOTIONAL STATE: VULNERABLE, HOPEFUL, AROUSED]
She was beautiful. Not the manufactured beauty of an idol, but something more genuine. Soft curves that her modest dress couldn't entirely hide. A face made for smiling, with dimples that appeared when she did. Eyes that held warmth and depth and something he was only beginning to understand.
"I see you," he said.
"And?"
"And you're beautiful. But I already knew that." He stepped closer, close enough to feel her breath. "What I'm learning is that you're also brave. Kind. Selfless in ways that terrify me. You gave everything to save strangers, Sana. Everything. That's not beautiful. That's extraordinary."
Her eyes glistened. "You barely know me."
"I know enough. The bond shows me who you really are. Not thoughts. Not memories. Just... you. Your heart." He cupped her face in his hands. "And your heart is remarkable."
"Sarnav-kun..."
The honorific sent a shiver through him. Japanese, intimate, the way she might have addressed a lover back home.
"Is this what you want?" he asked. "Truly? Because once we cross this line, there's no going back. You'll be mine. Part of the network. Part of the family."
"I know."
"There will be others. The system requires thirty-two wives eventually. I can't promise you exclusivity. Can't promise normal."
"I don't want normal." She leaned into his touch. "Normal died with the old world. I want to belong somewhere. To someone. I want..." She hesitated, then pushed forward. "I want you."
"Sana..."
"I know it's fast. I know we barely know each other. But I've spent sixteen days thinking I was going to die, and now I'm alive, and I don't want to waste any more time being careful." Her voice dropped. "I'm tired of being careful."
Through the partial bond, he felt her sincerity. Her desire. And beneath it, something that surprised him.
Need. Raw and honest and deeper than physical attraction.
"There's something else," she said, cheeks flushing. "Something I should probably tell you."
"What?"
She couldn't meet his eyes. "The idol training. The image they created. Pure, innocent, wholesome. The girl who blushed at holding hands, who couldn't even say the word 'kiss' without stammering." She swallowed. "It was an act. All of it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean..." She forced herself to look at him. "I'm not as innocent as I seem. The things I think about. The things I want. They would have destroyed my career if anyone knew."
Understanding dawned. "You're saying..."
"I used to read light novels. Romantic ones. Some of them very..." She trailed off, face burning. "Very explicit. About heroes with harems. About women who shared. I told myself it was research, understanding fantasy so I could play the innocent idol better. But I..." She took a breath. "I liked them. More than liked them. I used to imagine..."
She couldn't finish.
"Imagine what?" His voice was gentle.
"Being one of them. The heroines. Part of something like that." She laughed, embarrassed. "I thought I was broken. What kind of woman fantasizes about sharing a man? About being part of a harem? I hid it. Suppressed it. Told myself I was just stressed, that it didn't mean anything."
"And now?"
"Now I'm standing in front of a man with five wives who just told me I could be his sixth." Her eyes met his, vulnerability and hope intertwined. "And all I can think is that the universe has a really strange sense of humor."
"Or maybe it knows what we need better than we do."
"Maybe." She stepped closer. "I'm saying I've been saving myself, but not because I'm some blushing virgin who doesn't know what she wants. I know exactly what I want. I've thought about it. Dreamed about it. I just never found someone worth giving it to."
The confession hung between them.
"Until now?" he asked.
"Until now."
She kissed him.
Not the tentative, uncertain kiss of an innocent. She kissed him with three years of suppressed desire, with sixteen days of near-death clarity, with the desperate need of a woman who had finally found what she was looking for.
Her lips were soft but insistent. Her hands gripped his shirt, pulling him closer. The partial bond flared between them, emotions bleeding through unfiltered. Her desire. His restraint crumbling. The mutual recognition that they had both been waiting for this moment without knowing it.
He kissed her back.
His hands found her waist, pulling her against him. She gasped into his mouth, the sound sending heat through his veins. The bond brightened, deepened. He felt her emotions pour through, unfiltered. Desire. Hope. Fear. Love, nascent but real. And something else. A darkness that matched the secrets she'd just confessed. A need that ran deeper than the innocent exterior suggested.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, her eyes were wet with tears she refused to shed.
"Tonight," she whispered. "After dinner. Come to my room."
"Sana, we don't have to rush..."
"I'm not rushing. I'm choosing." She kissed him again, brief but fierce. "I've waited my whole life for something real. I've dreamed about it, fantasized about it, told myself it was impossible. And now it's here, and I'm terrified that if I wait, I'll lose it."
Her hands found his chest, feeling his heartbeat.
"Tonight," she repeated. "I want my first time to be with you. I want to give you everything I've been saving. Everything I've been hiding."
Through the bond, he felt her certainty. No hesitation. No doubt. Just a woman who had finally decided what she wanted.
"Tonight," he agreed.
She smiled, dimples appearing, and in that moment she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
[PARTIAL BOND: CONVERSION INITIATED]
[FULL BOND: PENDING CONSUMMATION]
[WIFE #6: MIURA SANA - AWAITING]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE STATUS][POPULATION: 565][WESTERN EXPANSION: 47% COMPLETE]
[TONIGHT: EVERYTHING CHANGES]